Though the expense involved in making films almost immediately led film production to concentrate under the auspices of standing production companies, advances in affordable film making equipment, and expansion of opportunities to acquire investment capital from outside the film industry itself, have allowed independent film production to evolve. Hollywood is the oldest film industry of the world,[1] and the largest in terms of box office gross revenue. Indian cinema (including Bollywood) is the largest film industry in terms of the number of films produced and the number of tickets sold, with 3.5 billion tickets sold annually (compared to Hollywood's 2.6 billion tickets sold annually)[2] and 1,986 feature films produced annually.[3]

The worldwide theatrical market had a box office of US$38.6 billion in 2016. The top three continents/regions by box office gross were: Asia-Pacific with US$14.9 billion, the U.S. and Canada with US$11.4 billion, and Europe, the Middle East and North Africa with US$9.5 billion.[4][5] As of 2016, the largest markets by box office were, in decreasing order, the United States, China, Japan, India, and the United Kingdom, as of 2011, the countries with the largest number of film productions were India, Nigeria, and the United States. In Europe, significant centers of movie production are France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom.[6]

Distinct from the centers are the locations where movies are filmed, because of labor and infrastructure costs, many films are produced in countries other than the one in which the company which pays for the film is located. For example, many U.S. movies are filmed in Canada, many Nigerian movies are filmed in Ghana, while many Indian movies are filmed in the Americas, Europe, Singapore etc.

The Cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-languagecinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, The Battle of Dingjunshan, was made in 1905, with the film industry being centered on Shanghai in the first decades. China is the home of the largest film studio in the world, the Hengdian World Studios, and in 2010 it had the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually, for the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned, and the domestic film industry was centered on Shanghai, a thriving entrepot and the largest city in the Far East. In 1913, the first independent Chinese screenplay, The Difficult Couple, was filmed in Shanghai by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan.[7] As the Sixth Generation gained international exposure, many subsequent movies were joint ventures and projects with international backers, but remained quite resolutely low-key and low budget. Jia's Platform (2000) was funded in part by Takeshi Kitano's production house,[8] while his Still Life was shot on HD video. Still Life was a surprise addition and Golden Lion winner of the 2006 Venice International Film Festival. Still Life, which concerns provincial workers around the Three Gorges region, sharply contrasts with the works of Fifth Generation Chinese directors like Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige who were at the time producing House of Flying Daggers (2004) and The Promise (2005). It featured no star of international renown and was acted mostly by non-professionals; in 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts. In 2014, the gross box office in China was ¥29.6 billion (US$4.82 billion), with domestic films having a share of 55%. The country is predicted to have the largest market in the world in 2017 or 2018.[9][10] China has also become a major hub of business for Hollywood studios;[11][12] in 2013, China's gross box office was ¥21.8 billion (US$3.6 billion), the second-largest film market in the world by box office receipts[13] whereas in 2014, China's box office gross was $4.8 Billion, being the second largest box office grosser in film industry.[14]

The earliest documented account of an exhibition of projected motion pictures in the United States was in June 1894 in Richmond, Indiana by Charles Francis Jenkins which makes United States cinema the earliest cinema in the whole world. Jenkins used his Phantoscope to project his film before an audience of family, friends and reporters, the film featured a vaudeville dancer performing a Butterfly Dance. Jenkins and his new partner Thomas Armat modified the Phantoscope for exhibitions in temporary theaters at the Cotton States Exposition in the fall of 1895, the Phantoscope was later sold to Thomas Edison, who changed the name of the projector to Edison's Vitascope.

Nestor studio, 1911

Nestor Studios was Hollywood's first movie studio, founded on 27 October 1911 It was built by David Horsley for Nestor Motion Picture Company. It was then owned and operated by David Horsley and his brother, William Horsley, the first motion picture stage in Hollywood was built behind the tavern. Other East Coast studios had moved production to Los Angeles, prior to Nestor's move west, the California weather allowed for year-round filming and the ambitious studio operated three principal divisions under its Canadian-born general manager, Al Christie. Other filmmakers began opening studios in the Hollywood area, the Horsleys operated the Nestor Studios at the Sunset and Gower location until 20 May 1912, when the Universal Studios was formed, headed by Carl Laemmle. Nestor, along with several other motion picture companies, including Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures (IMP), was merged with Universal.

A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – credited as the first full-length Indian motion picture.

India is the largest producer of films in the world and second oldest film industry in the world which originated around about 105 years ago;[19] in 2009 India produced a total of 2,961 films on celluloid; this figure includes 1,288 feature films.[20] India is the country that produces more films annually and has the largest number of admissions.[21] Indian film industry is multi-lingual and the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced and 5th largest in terms of revenue mainly due to having amongst the lowest ticket prices in the world,[22] the industry is viewed mainly by a vast film-going Indian public, and Indian films have been gaining increasing popularity in the rest of the world—notably in countries with large numbers of expatriate Indians. Indian film industry is also the dominant source of movies and entertainment in its neighboring countries of South Asia, the largest film industry in India is the Hindi film industry mostly concentrated in Mumbai (Bombay),[23] and is commonly referred to as Bollywood, an amalgamation of Bombay and Hollywood. The other largest film industries are Tamil cinema, Telugu cinema, Kannada cinema, Malayalam cinema, and Bangla cinema (cinema of West Bengal), which are located in Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, and Kolkata. The remaining majority portion is spread across northern, western, and southern India (with Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Oriya, Bhojpuri, Assamese Cinema). However, there are several smaller centers of Indian film industries in regional languages centered in the states where those languages are spoken. Indian films are made filled with musicals, action, romance, comedy, and an increasing number of special effects, it encloses a number of several artforms like Indian classical music, folk music of different regions throughout the country, Indian classical dance, folk dance and much more. It is even the place for number of artists from the Indian subcontinent to showcase their talent, the Indian film industry produces more than 1000 films a year. Bollywood is the largest portion of this and is viewed all over the Indian Subcontinent, and is increasingly popular in UK, United States, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Africa, the Gulf countries and European countries. The largest film studio complex in the world is Ramoji Film City is located at Hyderabad, India, which opened in 1996 and measures 674 ha (1,666 acres). Comprising 47 sound stages, it has permanent sets ranging from railway stations to temples.[24]

Bollywood represents 43% of Indian net box office revenue, while Telugu and Tamil cinema represent 36%, and the rest of the regional cinema constitute 21%, as of 2014.[25]

Film as a medium first arrived Nigeria in the late 19th century, in the form of peephole viewing of motion picture devices.[29] These were soon replaced in early 20th century with improved motion picture exhibition devices, with the first set of films screened at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos from 12 to 22 August 1903,[30] the earliest feature film made in Nigeria is the 1926 Palaver produced by Geoffrey Barkas; the film was also the first film ever to feature Nigerian actors in speaking roles.[31][32] The first film entirely copyrighted to the Nigerian Film unit is Fincho (1957) by Sam Zebba; which is also the first Nigerian film to be shot in colour.[33]

After Nigeria's independence in 1960, the cinema business rapidly expanded, with new cinema houses being established,[34] as a result, Nigerian content in theatres increased in the late 1960s into the 1970s, especially productions from Western Nigeria, owing to former theatre practitioners such as Hubert Ogunde and Moses Olaiya transitioning into the big screen.[35] In 1972, the Indigenization Decree was issued by Yakubu Gowon, which demands the transfer of ownership of about a total of 300 film theatres from their foreign owners to Nigerians, which resulted in more Nigerians playing active roles in the cinema and film.[36] The oil boom of 1973 through 1978 also contributed immensely to the spontaneous boost of the cinema culture in Nigeria, as the increased purchasing power in Nigeria made a wide range of citizens to have disposable income to spend on cinema going and on home television sets.[37]

After the decline of the Golden era, Nigerian film industry experienced a second major boom in the 1990s, supposedly marked by the release of the direct-to-video film Living in Bondage (1992); the industry peaked in the mid 2000s to become the second largest film industry in the world in terms of the number of annual film productions, placing it ahead of the United States and behind only India.[26] The films started dominating screens across the African continent and by extension, the Caribbeans and the diaspora,[38] with the movies significantly influencing cultures, and the film actors becoming household names across the continent. The boom also led to a backlash against Nigerian films in several countries, bordering on theories such as the "Nigerialization of Africa",[39][40] since mid-2000s, the Nigerian cinema have undergone some restructuring to promote quality and professionalism, with The Figurine (2009) widely regarded as marking the major turn around of contemporary Nigerian cinema. There has since been a resurgence in the proliferation of cinema establishments, and a steady return of the cinema culture in Nigeria.[41]

Egyptian cinema is the flourishing cinema of North Africa, since 1976, Cairo has held the annual Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF), which is accredited by the International Federation of Film Producers Association. Most of today’s Egyptian movies and TV series are produced in the Egyptian Media Production City which is equipped with the latest equipment for shooting in outdoor and indoor studios,[42] it includes about 64 high tech studios. Censorship, formerly an obstacle to freedom of expression, has decreased remarkably, the Egyptian cinema has witnessed a remarkable shift in terms of the taboos it may address. It has begun to tackle boldly issues ranging from sexual issues[43] to heavy government criticism,[44] the 1940s, 1950s and the 1960s are generally considered the golden age of Egyptian cinema. As in the West, films responded to the popular imagination, with most falling into predictable genres (happy endings being the norm), and many actors making careers out of playing strongly typed parts; in the words of one critic, "If an Egyptian film intended for popular audiences lacked any of these prerequisites, it constituted a betrayal of the unwritten contract with the spectator, the results of which would manifest themselves in the box office."[45] Since the 1990s, Egypt's cinema has gone in separate directions. Smaller art films attract some international attention but sparse attendance at home. Popular films, often broad comedies such as What A Lie!, and the extremely profitable works of comedian Mohamed Saad, battle to hold audiences either drawn to Western films or, increasingly, wary of the perceived immorality of film.[46]

The cinema of Iran (Persian: سینمای ایران) or cinema of Persia refers to the cinema and film industries in Iran which produce a variety of commercial films annually. Iranian art films have garnered international fame and now enjoy a global following.[47]

Along with China, Iran has been lauded as one of the best exporters of cinema in the 1990s,[48] some critics now rank Iran as the world's most important national cinema, artistically, with a significance that invites comparison to Italian neorealism and similar movements in past decades.[47] A range of international film festivals have honored Iranian cinema in the last twenty years. World-renowned Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke and German filmmaker Werner Herzog, along with many film critics from around the world, have praised Iranian cinema as one of the world's most important artistic cinemas.[49]

The term "cinema of Korea" (or "Korean cinema") encompasses the motion picture industries of North and South Korea. As with all aspects of Korean life during the past century, the film industry has often been at the mercy of political events, from the late Joseon dynasty to the Korean War to domestic governmental interference. While both countries have relatively robust film industries today, only South Korean films have achieved wide international acclaim. North Korean films tend to portray their communist or revolutionary themes.

South Korean films enjoyed a "Golden age" during the late 1950s, and 1960s, but by the 1970s had become generally considered to be of low quality. Nonetheless, by 2005 South Korea had become one of few nations to watch more domestic than imported films in theatres[50] due largely to laws placing limits on the number of foreign films able to be shown per theatre per year;[51] in the theaters, Korean films must be played for 73 days per year since 2006. On cable TV 25% domestic film quota will be reduced to 20% after KOR-US FTA,[52] the cinema of South Korea had a total box office gross in the country in 2015 of ₩884 billion and had 113,000,000 admissions, 52% of the total admissions.

Hong Kong is a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world (including the worldwide diaspora) and East Asia in general. For decades it was the third largest motion picture industry in the world (after Bollywood and Hollywood) and the second largest exporter of films,[53] despite an industry crisis starting in the mid-1990s and Hong Kong's return to Chinese sovereignty in July 1997 Hong Kong film has retained much of its distinctive identity and continues to play a prominent part on the world cinema stage. Unlike many film industries, Hong Kong has enjoyed little to no direct government support, through either subsidies or import quotas, it has always been a thoroughly commercial cinema, concentrating on crowd-pleasing genres, like comedy and action, and heavily reliant on formulas, sequels and remakes. Typically of commercial cinemas, its heart is a highly developed star system, which in this case also features substantial overlap with the pop music industry.

The Yeşilçam film industry is firmly established as the second largest European theatrical growth market and the 7th largest theatrical market in terms of admissions, only superseded by the ‘big 5’ EU markets and the Russian Federation, the Turkish film market also stands out in the pan-European landscape as the only market where national films regularly outperform US films.[54] It had 1.2 million number of admissions in film industry and 87 feature films were released in the year 2013.[55] Because of the exceptional box office success of Turkish films on the domestic market, the estimated 12.9 million admissions generated on non-national European markets only account for 7% of total admissions to Turkish films in Europe (including Turkey) between 2004 and 2013. This is the third lowest share among the 30 European markets for which such data are available and clearly illustrates the strong dependence of Turkish films on the domestic market, a feature which is shared by Polish and Russian films.[56]

Over the past ten years an increasing number of Turkish films and filmmakers have been selected for international film festivals and received a large number of awards, like Kış Uykusu (Winter's Sleep) won Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Film in 2014.[57] In terms of box office Turkey still ranks behind the Netherlands with just over EUR 200 million as Europe's eight largest box office market ahead of Sweden and Switzerland with a clear gap to the top 6 markets all of which registered GBO between EUR 504 million (Spain) up to over EUR 1 billion in France, the UK, Germany and the Russian Federation.[58] Cinema going is comparatively cheap in Turkey; in 2013 a cinema ticket cost on average EUR 4.0 in Turkey, and this is estimated to be the lowest average ticket price - measured in Euro - in Europe, marginally cheaper than in several Central and Eastern European markets like Croatia, Romania, Lithuania or Bulgaria.[59] When comparing ticket prices in Euro, one of course has to take into consideration that these comparisons are significantly affected by fluctuations in the exchange rates of the various currencies, because of devaluation of the Turkish Lira against the Euro, average ticket prices measured in Euro remained fairly stable over the past 10 years.[59]

The cinema of Pakistan, or simply, Pakistani cinema (Urdu: پاکستانی سنیما‬‎) refers to Pakistan's film industry. Most of the feature films shot in Pakistan are in Urdu, the national language, but may also include films in English, the official language, and regional languages such as Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi, and Sindhi. Lahore was the epicentre of Pakistani cinema and Pakistan's largest film industry was Lollywood after The film industry again shifted its base in Karachi & by 2007 Karachi has permanently become the Pakistani film and showbiz industry's headquarters.[citation needed]

Before the separation of Bangladesh, Pakistan had three main film production centres: Lahore, Karachi and Dhaka. The regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, VCRs, film piracy, the introduction of entertainment taxes, strict laws based upon ultra-conservative jurisprudence, was an obstacle to the industry's growth.[60] Once thriving, the cinema in Pakistan had a sudden collapse in the 1980s and by the 2000s "an industry that once produced an average of 80 films annually was now struggling to even churn out more than two films a year.".[61][62] However, the industry has recently made a dramatic and remarkable comeback, evident from the fact that 18 of the 21 highest grossing Pakistani movies were released from 2013 through to the present, with Pakistani films frequently outcompeting Bollywood movies for the Pakistani audience, the industry is supported by Pakistani channels such as ARY and Geo whose entertainment divisions have invested significantly in Pakistani cinema when expanding from providing news and entertainment on TV channels, the lifting of strict regulations on production of films and reduction of taxes on cinemas helped to fuel an expansion across the industry from which the film industry has seen a revival.

The cinema of Bangladesh is the Bengali language film industry based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The industry often has been a significant film industry since the early 1970s, the word "Dhallywood" is a portmanteau of the words Dhaka and Hollywood. The dominant style of Bangladeshi cinema is Melodramatic cinema, which developed from 1947 to 1990 and characterizes most films to this day. Cinema was introduced in Bangladesh in 1898 by Bradford Bioscope Company, credited to have arranged the first film release in Bangladesh. Between 1913 and 1914, the first production company named Picture House was opened. A short silent film titled Sukumari (The Good Girl) was the first produced film in the region during 1928, the first full-length film The Last Kiss, was released in 1931. From the separation of Bangladesh from Pakistan, Dhaka is the center of Bangladeshi film industry, and generated the majority share of revenue, production and audiences, the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and the first half of the 1990s were the golden years for Bangladeshi films as the industry produced many successful films. The Face and the Mask, the first Bengali language Bangladeshi full-length feature film was produced in 1956.[63][64]

The biggest film studios in Southeast Asia has been soft opened on 5 November 2011 on 10 hectares of land in Nongsa, Batam Island, Indonesia. Infinite Frameworks (IFW) is a Singapore-based company (closed to Batam Island) which easy to approach or be approached by international clients and is owned by a consortium with 90 percent of it hold by Indonesian businessman and movie producer, Mike Wiluan;[65] in 2010-2011, due to the substantial increase in value added tax applied to foreign films, cinemas no longer have access to many foreign films, including Oscar-winning films. Foreign films include major box offices from the west, and other major film producers of the world, this has caused a massive ripple effect on the country's economy. It is assumed that this increases the purchase of unlicensed DVDs. However, even copyright violating DVDs now take longer to obtain, the minimum cost to view a foreign film not screened locally, is 1 million Rupiah. This is equivalent to US$100, as it includes a plane ticket to Singapore.[66] Locally made film quality has gone up in 2012, this is attested by the international release of films such as The Raid: Redemption, Modus Anomali, Dilema, Lovely Man, Java Heat, etc.

Trinidad and Tobago’s film sector began emerging in the late fifties to early sixties and by the late seventies, there were a handful of local productions, both feature film and television,[67] the first full-length feature film to be produced in Trinidad and Tobago was “The Right and the Wrong” (1970) by Indian director/writer/producer, Harbance Kumar. The screenplay was written by the Trinidadian playwright, Freddie Kissoon,[68] the rest of the 20th century saw a couple more feature films being made in the country, with “Bim” (1974), being singled out by Bruce Paddington as "one of the most important films to be produced in Trinidad and Tobago….and one of the classics of Caribbean cinema.”[69] It was one of the first films to feature an almost entirely Trinidadian cast and crew.[70] There was a rise in Trinidadian film production in the 2000s. Movies such as “Ivan the Terrible” (2004), “SistaGod” (2006), “I’m Santana: The Movie” (2012) and “God Loves the Fighter” (2013) were released both locally and internationally. “SistaGod” had its world premiere at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival.[71]

The Trinidad and Tobago Film Company is the national agency that was established in 2006 to further development of the film industry. Trinidad and Tobago puts on a number of film festivals which are organized by different committees and organizations, these include the Secondary Schools Short Film Festival and Smartphone Film Festival organized by Trinidad and Tobago Film Company. There is also an annual Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival which runs for two weeks in the latter half of September.

Nepali film does not have a very long movie history, but the industry has its own place in the cultural heritage of the country, it is often referred to as 'Nepali Chalchitra' (which translates to "Nepali movies" in English). The terms Kollywood and Kallywood are also used, as a portmanteau of "Kathmandu" and "Hollywood"; "Kollywood" however is more frequently used to refer to Tamil cinema.[1] Chhakka Panja has been considered the highest-grossing movie of all time in Nepali Movie Industry and Kohinoor the second highest. Nepali movies has recently begun receiving international acclaim with films such as The Black Hen (2015), Kagbeni (2006) and others. Nepali feature film White Sun (Seto Surya) has bagged the Best Film award at the 27th Singapore International Film Festival (SGIFF)(2016).

The Film Development Board (FDB) was established by the Government of Nepal for the development and promotion of the Nepali film industry, the Board is a liaison to facilitate the conceptualization, making, distribution and exhibition of Nepali films nationally. The Board attempts to bridge the gap between film entrepreneurship and government bureaucracy, the Board is a balance between the people at large, the government, and the process of film making. It is intended to act as the safeguard of the interests of the people, the watchdog of the government, and the advocate of filmmakers.

In the early 1910s, the film industry had fully emerged with D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation. Also in the early 1900s motion picture production companies from New York and New Jersey started moving to California because of the good weather and longer days, although electric lights existed at that time, none were powerful enough to adequately expose film; the best source of illumination for movie production was natural sunlight. Besides the moderate, dry climate, they were also drawn to the state because of its open spaces and wide variety of natural scenery.

Another reason was the distance of Southern California from New Jersey, making it more difficult for Thomas Edison to enforce his motion picture patents, at the time, Edison owned almost all the patents relevant to motion picture production and, in the East, movie producers acting independently of Edison's Motion Picture Patents Company were often sued or enjoined by Edison and his agents. Thus, movie makers working on the West Coast could work independently of Edison's control. If he sent agents to California, word would usually reach Los Angeles before the agents did and the movie makers could escape to nearby Mexico.[citation needed]

Hollywood is the oldest film industry in the world which was originated 121 years ago, the earliest documented account of an exhibition of projected motion pictures in the United States was in June 1894 in Richmond, Indiana by Charles Francis Jenkins. The first movie studio in the Hollywood area, Nestor Studios, was founded in 1911 by Al Christie for David Horsley in an old building on the northwest corner of Sunset Boulevard and Gower Street. In the same year, another fifteen Independents settled in Hollywood. Hollywood came to be so strongly associated with the film industry that the word "Hollywood" came to be used colloquially to refer to the entire industry.

The famous Hollywood Sign originally read "Hollywoodland." It was erected in 1923 to advertise a new housing development in the hills above Hollywood. For several years the sign was left to deteriorate; in 1949 the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce stepped in and offered to remove the last four letters and repair the rest.

The sign, located at the top of Mount Lee, is now a registered trademark and cannot be used without the permission of the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, which also manages the venerable Walk of Fame.

The first Academy Awards presentation ceremony took place on 16 May 1929, during a banquet held in the Blossom Room of the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Boulevard. Tickets were USD $10.00[citation needed] and there were 250 people in attendance.

From about 1930 five major Hollywood movie studios from all over the Los Angeles area, Paramount, RKO, 20th Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Warner Bros., owned large, grand theaters throughout the country for the exhibition of their movies. The period between the years 1927 (the effective end of the silent era) to 1948 is considered the age of the "Hollywood studio system", or, in a more common term, the Golden Age of Hollywood; in a landmark 1948 court decision, the Supreme Court ruled that movie studios could not own theaters and play only the movies of their studio and movie stars, thus an era of Hollywood history had unofficially ended. By the mid-1950s, when television proved a profitable enterprise that was here to stay, movie studios started also being used for the production of programming in that medium, which is still the norm today.

Bollywood is the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; however, it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centres producing films in multiple languages.[73] Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centres of film production in the world.[74][75][76]

The Wrestlers (1899) and The Man and His Monkeys (1899), directed and produced by Harischandra Sakharam Bhatawdekar (H. S. Bhatavdekar), were the first two films made by Indian filmmakers, which were both short films. He was also the first Indian filmmaker to direct and produce the first documentary and news related film, titled The Landing of Sir M.M. Bhownuggree.

The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots.[85]

In 1937 Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya, the next year, he made another colour film, a version of Mother India. However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s, at this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema.

The following is a list of the top 15 countries by the number of feature films (fiction, animation and documentary) produced, as determined by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics as of 2015,[100] unless otherwise noted.

^Matusitz, J., & Payano, P. (2011). The Bollywood in Indian and American Perceptions: A Comparative Analysis. India Quarterly: A Journal of International Affairs, 67(1), 65–77. doi:10.1177/097492841006700105

^Brzeski, Patrick; Coonan, Clifford (3 April 2014). "Inside Johnny Depp's 'Transcendence' Trip to China". The Hollywood Reporter. As China's box office continues to boom – it expanded 30 percent in the first quarter of 2014 and is expected to reach $4.64 billion by year's end – Beijing is replacing London and Tokyo as the most important promotional destination for Hollywood talent.

^"Film World". Film World. T.M. Ramachandran. 10: 65. 1974. I feel that the Government should eradicate the age-old evil of certifying Urdu films as Hindi ones. It is a known fact that Urdu has been willingly accepted and used by the film industry. Two eminent Urdu writers Krishan Chander and Ismat Chughtai have said that "more than seventy-five per cent of films are made in Urdu." It is a pity that although Urdu is freely used in films, the producers in general mention the language of the film as "Hindi" in the application forms supplied by the Censor Board. It is a gross misrepresentation and unjust to the people who love Urdu.

1.
Film crew
–
A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. The crew is distinguished from the cast as the cast are understood to be the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. The crew is also separate from the producers as the producers are the ones who own a portion of either the company or the films intellectual property rights. A film crew is divided into different departments, each of which specializes in an aspect of the production. Motion picture projects have three stages, development, production and distribution. Television crew positions are derived from those of film crew, the director is considered to be a separate entity, not within the film crews departmental structure. Though directors wield a great deal of power, they are subordinate to the films producer or producers. Some directors, especially more established ones, take on many of the roles of a producer, second unit director The second unit director is responsible for overseeing the photography assigned to the second unit, which can range from minor insert shots to large stunt sequences. The second unit director position is filled by a member of the production. Music director In India-based movie productions, many of which are musicals, the role involves supervising the arrangement, recording and mastering of film music along with conducting and orchestration. Writer Person or persons who write a film script, either an original script or adapted from another written work, in which case the original work and author may also be credited. Production is generally not considered a department as such, but rather as a series of functional groups, producer A film producer creates the conditions for film-making. The producer initiates, coordinates, supervises, and controls matters such as raising, hiring key personnel. The producer is involved throughout all phases of the making process from development to completion of a project. There may be producers on a film who may take a role in a number of areas, such as development. Today, however, the title has become ambiguous, particularly in feature films, since the 1980s, it has become increasingly common for the line producer to be given the title of executive producer, while the initiating producer takes the produced by credit. On other projects, the reverse happens, with the producer taking the produced by credit. So the two credits have become effectively interchangeable, with no precise definition, line producer The line producer is the liaison between the studio or producer and the production manager, responsible for managing the production budget

2.
Filmmaking
–
Filmmaking is the process of making a film. Filmmaking takes place in places around the world in a range of economic, social, and political contexts. Typically, it involves a number of people, and can take from a few months to several years to complete. Film production consists of five stages, Development, The first stage in which the ideas for the film are created, rights to books/plays are bought etc. Financing for the project has to be sought and greenlit, pre-production, Preparations are made for the shoot, in which cast and film crew are hired, locations are selected and sets are built. Production, The raw elements for the film are recorded during the film shoot, post-production, The images, sound, and visual effects of the recorded film are edited. Distribution, The finished film is distributed and screened in cinemas and released to home video. In this stage, the project producer selects a story, which may come from a book, play, another film, true story, video game, comic book, graphic novel, or an original idea, etc. After identifying a theme or underlying message, the works with writers to prepare a synopsis. Next they produce an outline, which breaks the story down into one-paragraph scenes that concentrate on dramatic structure. Then, they prepare a treatment, a 25-to-30-page description of the story, its mood and this usually has little dialogue and stage direction, but often contains drawings that help visualize key points. Another way is to produce a scriptment once a synopsis is produced, next, a screenwriter writes a screenplay over a period of several months. The screenwriter may rewrite it several times to improve dramatization, clarity, structure, characters, dialogue, however, producers often skip the previous steps and develop submitted screenplays which investors, studios, and other interested parties assess through a process called script coverage. A film distributor may be contacted at a stage to assess the likely market. All these factors imply a certain appeal of the film to a possible audience, not all films make a profit from the theatrical release alone, so film companies take DVD sales and worldwide distribution rights into account. The producer and screenwriter prepare a film pitch, or treatment and they will also pitch the film to actors and directors in order to attach them to the project. Many projects fail to move beyond this stage and enter so-called development hell, if a pitch succeeds, a film receives a green light, meaning someone offers financial backing, typically a major film studio, film council, or independent investor. The parties involved negotiate a deal and sign contracts, once all parties have met and the deal has been set, the film may proceed into the pre-production period

3.
Film studio
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The majority of firms in the entertainment industry have never owned their own studios, but have rented space from other companies. The largest film studio in the world is Hengdian World Studios, in Zhejiang and he distributed these movies at vaudeville theaters, penny arcades, wax museums, and fairgrounds. The pioneering Thanhouser film studio was founded in New Rochelle, New York in 1909 by American theatrical impresario Edwin Thanhouser, the company produced and released 1,086 films between 1910 and 1917, successfully distributing them around the world. The first film ever, Million Dollar Mystery, was released by the Thanhouser company in 1914. In the early 1900s, companies started moving to Los Angeles, although electric lights were by then widely available, none were yet powerful enough to adequately expose film, the best source of illumination for motion picture production was natural sunlight. Some movies were shot on the roofs of buildings in Downtown Los Angeles, early movie producers also relocated to Southern California to escape Edisons Motion Picture Patents Company, which controlled almost all the patents relevant to movie production at the time. The first movie studio in the Hollywood area was Nestor Studios, in the same year, another 15 independents settled in Hollywood. Other production companies eventually settled in the Los Angeles area in such as Culver City, Burbank. Five large companies, 20th Century Fox, RKO Pictures, Paramount Pictures, smaller studios operated simultaneously with the majors. Together with smaller outfits such as PRC TKO and Grand National, the Big Fives ownership of movie theaters was eventually opposed by eight independent producers, including Samuel Goldwyn, David O. Selznick, Walt Disney, Hal Roach, and Walter Wanger. In 1948, the government won a case against Paramount in the Supreme Court. This decision, reached after years of litigation, hastened the end of the studio system. By the 1950s, the components of a typical major film studio had become standardized. Movement in and out of the studio is normally limited to specific gates, Studio premises generally feature multiple sound stages along with an outside backlot, as well as offices for studio executives and production companies. There is normally a studio commissary, which is the term in the film industry for what other industries call a company cafeteria. With the growing diversification of studios into such fields as video games, television, theme parks, home video and publishing, instead the studios transformed into financing and distribution entities for the films made by their affiliated production companies. With the decreasing cost of CG and visual effects, many studios sold large chunks of their once massive studio spaces or backlots to private real-estate developers. Century City in Los Angeles was once part of the 20th Century Fox backlot, in most cases portions of the backlots were retained and are available for rental by various film and television productions

4.
Cinematography
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Typically, a lens is used to repeatedly focus the light reflected from objects into real images on the light-sensitive surface inside a camera during a questioned exposure, creating multiple images. With an electronic sensor, this produces an electrical charge at each pixel. The result with photographic emulsion is a series of invisible latent images on the film stock, the images on the film stock are played back at a rapid speed and projected onto a screen, creating the illusion of motion. Cinematography finds uses in fields of science and business as well as for entertainment purposes. The word cinematography was created from the Greek words κίνημα, meaning movement, motion and γράφειν meaning to record, the word used to refer to the art, process, or job of filming movies, but later its meaning was restricted to motion picture photography. In the 1830s, moving images were produced on revolving drums and disks, with independent invention by Simon von Stampfer in Austria, Joseph Plateau in Belgium, and William Horner in Britain. In 1845, Francis Ronalds invented the first successful camera able to make recordings of the varying indications of meteorological. The cameras were supplied to numerous observatories around the world and some remained in use well into the 20th century. William Lincoln patented a device, in 1867, that showed animated pictures called the wheel of life or zoopraxiscope, in it, moving drawings or photographs were watched through a slit. On 19 June 1873, Eadweard Muybridge successfully photographed a horse named Sallie Gardner in fast motion using a series of 24 stereoscopic cameras. The cameras were arranged along a parallel to the horses. They were 21 inches apart to cover the 20 feet taken by the horse stride, although it was never played back at speed to create motion, this was the first step towards motion pictures. The late nineteenth to the twentieth century brought rise to the use of film not only for entertainment purposes. The experimental film Roundhay Garden Scene, filmed by Louis Le Prince on 14 October 1888, in Roundhay, Leeds and this movie was shot on paper film. W. K. L. Dickson, working under the direction of Thomas Alva Edison, was the first to design a successful apparatus and this camera took a series of instantaneous photographs on standard Eastman Kodak photographic emulsion coated onto a transparent celluloid strip 35 mm wide. The results of work were first shown in public in 1893, using the viewing apparatus also designed by Dickson. Contained within a box, only one person at a time looking into it through a peephole could view the movie. The Lumière brothers were the first to present projected, moving, photographic, in 1896, movie theaters were open in France, Italy, Brussels, and London

5.
Animation
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Animation is the process of making the illusion of motion and the illusion of change by means of the rapid display of a sequence of images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon, animators are artists who specialize in the creation of animation. Animation can be recorded with either analogue media, a book, motion picture film, video tape, digital media, including formats with animated GIF, Flash animation. To display animation, a camera, computer, or projector are used along with new technologies that are produced. Animation creation methods include the traditional animation creation method and those involving stop motion animation of two and three-dimensional objects, paper cutouts, puppets and clay figures, Images are displayed in a rapid succession, usually 24,25,30, or 60 frames per second. Computer animation processes generating animated images with the general term computer-generated imagery, 3D animation uses computer graphics, while 2D animation is used for stylistic, low bandwidth and faster real-time renderings. An earthen goblet discovered at the site of the 5, 200-year-old Shahr-e Sūkhté in southeastern Iran, the artifact bears five sequential images depicting a Persian Desert Ibex jumping up to eat the leaves of a tree. They may, of course, refer to Chinese shadow puppets, in the 19th century, the phenakistoscope, zoetrope and praxinoscope were introduced. A thaumatrope is a toy with a small disk with different pictures on each side. The phenakistoscope was invented simultaneously by Belgian Joseph Plateau and Austrian Simon von Stampfer in 1831, the phenakistoscope consists of a disk with a series of images, drawn on radi evenly space around the center of the disk. John Barnes Linnett patented the first flip book in 1868 as the kineograph, the first animated projection was created in France, by Charles-Émile Reynaud, who was a French science teacher. Reynaud created the Praxinoscope in 1877 and the Théâtre Optique in December 1888, on 28 October 1892, he projected the first animation in public, Pauvre Pierrot, at the Musée Grévin in Paris. This film is notable as the first known instance of film perforations being used. His films were not photographed, they were drawn directly onto the transparent strip, in 1900, more than 500,000 people had attended these screenings. Stuart Blackton, who, because of that, is considered the father of American animation, in Europe, the French artist, Émile Cohl, created the first animated film using what came to be known as traditional animation creation methods - the 1908 Fantasmagorie. The film largely consisted of a figure moving about and encountering all manner of morphing objects. There were also sections of live action in which the hands would enter the scene. The film was created by drawing each frame on paper and then shooting each frame onto negative film, the author of the first puppet-animated film was the Russian-born director Wladyslaw Starewicz, known as Ladislas Starevich

6.
Screenwriting
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Screenwriting, also called scriptwriting, is the art and craft of writing scripts for mass media such as feature films, television productions or video games. It is frequently a freelance profession, screenwriters are responsible for researching the story, developing the narrative, writing the screenplay, and delivering it, in the required format, to development executives. Screenwriters therefore have great influence over the direction and emotional impact of the screenplay and, arguably. The act of screenwriting takes many forms across the entertainment industry, often, multiple writers work on the same script at different stages of development with different tasks. Over the course of a career, a screenwriter might be hired to write in a wide variety of roles. The content is usually invented solely by the screenwriter, though spec screenplays can also be based on established works, or real people, the spec script is a Hollywood sales tool. The vast majority of scripts written each year are spec scripts, a spec script is usually a wholly original work, but can also be an adaptation. In television writing, a script is a sample teleplay written to demonstrate the writers knowledge of a show and ability to imitate its style. It is submitted to the producers in hopes of being hired to write future episodes of the show. Budding screenwriters attempting to break into the business generally begin by writing one or more spec scripts, although writing spec scripts is part of any writers career, the Writers Guild of America forbids members to write on speculation. The distinction is that a script is written as a sample by the writer on his or her own. In addition to writing a script on speculation, it is not advised to write camera angles or other directional terminology. A director may write up a shooting script himself or herself, the director may ask the original writer to co-write it with him or her, or to rewrite a script that satisfies both the director and producer of the film/TV show. Spec writing is unique in that the writer must pitch the idea to producers. In order to sell the script, it must have a title, good writing. A logline is one sentence that lays out what the movie is about, a well written logline will convey the tone of the film, introduce the main character, and touch on the primary conflict. Usually the logline and title work in tandem to draw people in and these things, along with nice, clean writing will hugely impact whether or not a producer picks up the spec script. A commissioned screenplay is written by a hired writer, the concept is usually developed long before the screenwriter is brought on, and often has multiple writers work on it before the script is given a green light

7.
Film festival
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A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more cinemas or screening venues, usually in a single city or region. Increasingly, film festivals show some films outdoors, films may be of recent date and, depending upon the festivals focus, can include international and domestic releases. Some festivals focus on a specific film-maker or genre or subject matter, a number of film festivals specialise in short films of a defined maximum length. Film festivals are annual events. Some film historians do not consider Film Festivals as official releases of film, the Venice Film Festival is the oldest major festival. The Melbourne International Film Festival is the largest film festival in the Southern Hemisphere, the San Sebastián International Film Festival is one of the most important and oldest film festivals in Europe. It was at this festival where the worldwide first release of North by Northwest was showed, Raindance Film Festival is the UKs largest celebration of independent film-making, and takes place in London in October. Australias first and longest running festival is the Melbourne International Film Festival. Edinburgh International Film Festival is the longest running festival in Great Britain, North Americas first and longest running short film festival is the Yorkton Film Festival, established in 1947. The first film festival in the United States was the Columbus International Film & Video Festival, also known as The Chris Awards and it was followed four years later by the San Francisco International Film Festival, held in March 1957, which emphasized feature-length dramatic films. The festival played a role in introducing foreign films to American audiences. Films in the first year included Akira Kurosawas Throne of Blood, Film festival dedicated to honoring music in film. Digital feature film began in 2005, along with the worlds first online film festival. Unlike other arts nonprofits, film festivals typically receive few donations from the public and are occasionally organized as nonprofit business associations instead of public charities. Film industry members often have significant curatorial input, and corporate sponsors are given opportunities to promote their brand to festival audiences in exchange for cash contributions, private parties, often to raise investments for film projects, constitute significant fringe events. Larger festivals maintain year-round staffs often engaging in community and charitable projects outside festival season, on the other hand, some festivals—usually those accepting fewer films, and perhaps not attracting as many big names in their audiences as do Sundance and Telluride—require no entry fee. Rotterdam Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival, and many film festivals in the United States, are examples. The Portland International Film Festival charges a fee, but waives it for filmmakers from the Northwestern United States

8.
Actor
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An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance. Simplistically speaking, the person denominated actor or actress is someone beautiful who plays important characters, the actor performs in the flesh in the traditional medium of the theatre, or in modern mediums such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής, literally one who answers, the actors interpretation of their role pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is playing themselves, as in forms of experimental performance art, or, more commonly, to act, is to create. Formerly, in societies, only men could become actors. When used for the stage, women played the roles of prepubescent boys. The etymology is a derivation from actor with ess added. However, when referring to more than one performer, of both sexes, actor is preferred as a term for male performers. Actor is also used before the name of a performer as a gender-specific term. Within the profession, the re-adoption of the term dates to the 1950–1960s. As Whoopi Goldberg put it in an interview with the paper, Im an actor – I can play anything. The U. K. performers union Equity has no policy on the use of actor or actress, an Equity spokesperson said that the union does not believe that there is a consensus on the matter and stated that the. subject divides the profession. In 2009, the Los Angeles Times stated that Actress remains the term used in major acting awards given to female recipients. However, player remains in use in the theatre, often incorporated into the name of a group or company, such as the American Players. Also, actors in improvisational theatre may be referred to as players, prior to Thespis act, Grecian stories were only expressed in song, dance, and in third person narrative. In honor of Thespis, actors are commonly called Thespians, the exclusively male actors in the theatre of ancient Greece performed in three types of drama, tragedy, comedy, and the satyr play. Western theatre developed and expanded considerably under the Romans, as the Western Roman Empire fell into decay through the 4th and 5th centuries, the seat of Roman power shifted to Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Records show that mime, pantomime, scenes or recitations from tragedies and comedies, dances, from the 5th century, Western Europe was plunged into a period of general disorder

9.
Film director
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A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. Generally, a film director controls a films artistic and dramatic aspects, the director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film, the film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions, there are many pathways to becoming a film director. Some film directors started as screenwriters, cinematographers, film editors or actors, other film directors have attended a film school. Some outline a general plotline and let the actors dialogue, while others control every aspect. Some directors also write their own screenplays or collaborate on screenplays with long-standing writing partners, some directors edit or appear in their films, or compose the music score for their films. Film directors create a vision through which a film eventually becomes realized/noticed. Realizing this vision includes overseeing the artistic and technical elements of production, as well as directing the shooting timetable. This entails organizing the crew in such a way as to achieve their vision of the film. This requires skills of leadership, as well as the ability to maintain a singular focus even in the stressful. Moreover, it is necessary to have an eye to frame shots and to give precise feedback to cast and crew, thus. Thus the director ensures that all involved in the film production are working towards an identical vision for the completed film. The set of varying challenges he or she has to tackle has been described as a jigsaw puzzle with egos. It adds to the pressure that the success of a film can influence when, omnipresent are the boundaries of the films budget. Additionally, the director may also have to ensure an intended age rating, thus, the position of film director is widely considered to be a highly stressful and demanding one. It has been said that 20-hour days are not unusual, under European Union law, the film director is considered the author or one of the authors of a film, largely as a result of the influence of auteur theory. Auteur theory is a film criticism concept that holds that a directors film reflects the directors personal creative vision

10.
Film
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A film, also called a movie, motion picture, theatrical film or photoplay, is a series of still images which, when shown on a screen, creates the illusion of moving images due to the phi phenomenon. This optical illusion causes the audience to perceive continuous motion between separate objects viewed rapidly in succession, the process of filmmaking is both an art and an industry. The word cinema, short for cinematography, is used to refer to the industry of films. Films were originally recorded onto plastic film through a photochemical process, the adoption of CGI-based special effects led to the use of digital intermediates. Most contemporary films are now fully digital through the process of production, distribution. Films recorded in a form traditionally included an analogous optical soundtrack. It runs along a portion of the film exclusively reserved for it and is not projected, Films are cultural artifacts created by specific cultures. They reflect those cultures, and, in turn, affect them, Film is considered to be an important art form, a source of popular entertainment, and a powerful medium for educating—or indoctrinating—citizens. The visual basis of film gives it a power of communication. Some films have become popular worldwide attractions by using dubbing or subtitles to translate the dialog into the language of the viewer, some have criticized the film industrys glorification of violence and its potentially negative treatment of women. The individual images that make up a film are called frames, the perception of motion is due to a psychological effect called phi phenomenon. The name film originates from the fact that film has historically been the medium for recording and displaying motion pictures. Many other terms exist for a motion picture, including picture, picture show, moving picture, photoplay. The most common term in the United States is movie, while in Europe film is preferred. Terms for the field, in general, include the big screen, the screen, the movies, and cinema. In early years, the sheet was sometimes used instead of screen. Preceding film in origin by thousands of years, early plays and dances had elements common to film, scripts, sets, costumes, production, direction, actors, audiences, storyboards, much terminology later used in film theory and criticism apply, such as mise en scène. Owing to the lack of any technology for doing so, the moving images, the magic lantern, probably created by Christiaan Huygens in the 1650s, could be used to project animation, which was achieved by various types of mechanical slides

11.
Cinema of the United States
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The cinema of the United States, often metonymously referred to as Hollywood, has had a profound effect on cinema across the world since the early 20th century. The dominant style of American cinema is Classical Hollywood Cinema, which developed from 1917-1960, while the French Lumière Brothers are generally credited with the birth of modern cinema, it is American cinema that soon became the most dominant force in an emerging industry. Since the 1920s, the American film industry has grossed more money every year than that of any other country, in 1878, Eadweard Muybridge demonstrated the power of photography to capture motion. In 1894, the worlds first commercial motion picture exhibition was given in New York City, the United States was in the forefront of sound film development in the following decades. Since the early 20th century, the U. S. film industry has largely been based in and around Hollywood, Los Angeles, director D. W. Griffith was central to the development of film grammar. Orson Welless Citizen Kane is frequently cited in critics polls as the greatest film of all time. T, the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Titanic, Avatar, The Avengers, Furious 7, Jurassic World, and Star Wars, The Force Awakens. Today, American film studios collectively generate several hundred movies every year, muybridges accomplishment led inventors everywhere to attempt to make similar devices that would capture such motion. In the United States, Thomas Edison was among the first to produce such a device, the history of cinema in the United States can trace its roots to the East Coast where, at one time, Fort Lee, New Jersey was the motion picture capital of America. The industry got its start at the end of the 19th century with the construction of Thomas Edisons Black Maria, in 1909, a forerunner of Universal Studios, the Champion Film Company, built the first studio. They were quickly followed by others who either built new studios or who leased facilities in Fort Lee, such notables as Mary Pickford got their start at Biograph Studios. In New York, the Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, was built during the silent film era, was used by the Marx Brothers, the Edison Studios were located in the Bronx. Chelsea, Manhattan was also frequently used, other major centers of film production also included Chicago, Florida, Texas, California, and Cuba. The film patents wars of the early 20th century led to the spread of film companies across the U. S and they started filming on a vacant lot near Georgia Street in downtown Los Angeles. While there, the decided to explore new territories, traveling several miles north to Hollywood. Griffith then filmed the first movie shot in Hollywood, In Old California, a Biograph melodrama about California in the 19th century. Griffith stayed there for months and made several films before returning to New York, after hearing about Griffiths success in Hollywood, in 1913, many movie-makers headed west to avoid the fees imposed by Thomas Edison, who owned patents on the movie-making process. Nestor Studios of Bayonne, New Jersey, built the first studio in Hollywood in 1911, Californias more hospitable and cost-effective climate led to the eventual shift of virtually all filmmaking to the West Coast by the 1930s. In Los Angeles, the studios and Hollywood grew, before World War I, movies were made in several U. S. cities, but filmmakers gravitated to southern California as the industry developed

12.
Bollywood
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Bollywood is the sobriquet for Indias Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema, Bollywood is also one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Furthermore, Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed, according to Matusitz, J. & Payano, P. In 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood, Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced in Indian cinema. The name Bollywood is a derived from Bombay, India, and Hollywood, California. Bollywood does not exist as a physical place, some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood. The naming scheme for Bollywood was inspired by Tollywood, the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal and it was this chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables, Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name Tollywood being coined. However, Tollywood is now used popularly to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh, the term Bollywood itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the worlds largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna. Raja Harishchandra, by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India, by the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Iranis Alam Ara, was a commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals, Bollywood, the 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times, India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, in 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made another film, a version of Mother India. However, colour did not become a feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the fare at the cinema. Following Indias independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded by historians as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema. Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period, examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara, Shree 420 and Dilip Kumars Aan

13.
World cinema
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World cinema is a term used primarily in English-speaking countries to refer to the films and film industries of non-English-speaking countries. It is therefore often used interchangeably with the foreign film. However, both world cinema and foreign film could be taken to refer to the films of all other than ones own. World cinema has an implication of films with artistic value as opposed to Hollywood commercialism. Foreign language films are often grouped with art house films and other independent films in DVD stores, unless dubbed into ones native language, foreign language films played in English-speaking regions usually have English subtitles. Few films of this kind receive more than a limited release, as such the marketing, popularity and gross takings for these films are usually markedly less than for typical Hollywood blockbusters. The combination of subtitles and minimal exposure adds to the notion that World Cinema has an inferred artistic prestige or intelligence, additionally, differences in cultural style and tone between foreign and domestic films affects attendance at cinemas and DVD sales. Foreign language films can be commercial, low brow or B-movies, furthermore, foreign language films can cross cultural boundaries, particularly when the visual spectacle and style is sufficient to overcome peoples misgivings. The first foreign and foreign film to top the North American box office was Hero in August 2004. Foreign language films that are successful in international markets may be taken on by the large film distribution companies for DVD releases. At the other end of the scale, many foreign films are never given a DVD release outside of their home markets. The majority of those DVDs that are given an international release and they bought out Medusa Communications in 2005, and own the sub-labels Hong Kong Legends and Premier Asia. The Criterion Collection Dragon Dynasty - Label specialising in films from East Asia, eastern Eye Facets Multimedia Film Movement Fortissimo Films ImaginAsian Pictures Janus Films Kino International - Label distributing foreign language, arthouse and silent films. Manga Entertainment - Label specialising in anime, masters of Cinema Mongrel Media Optimum Releasing - Distributor of foreign and English language films in the UK. East Asian films released through their Optimum Asia sub-label, palador Pictures - Distributors of highly awarded foreign language films from across the world. Palisades Tartan - Palisades bought out the back catalogue of Tartan Films when they folded, soda Pictures Studio Canal Tartan Films - Label distributing a variety of foreign and English language films, though primarily East Asian films. The company consists of Tartan Video in the UK and Tartan Films USA, as well as the Tartan Asia Extreme, the company folded in 2008 and were taken over by Palisades

14.
Cinema of Africa
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African cinema is film production in Africa. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels were the primary technology in use. The Nigerian film industry is the largest in Africa in terms of value, number of films, revenue. It is also the second and third largest national film industry in the world, based on the number of annual films, during the colonial era, Africa was represented exclusively by Western filmmakers. The continent was portrayed as a land without history or culture. In the mid-1930s, the Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment was conducted in order to educate the Bantu, in the French colonies Africans were legally prohibited from making films of their own. The ban stunted the growth of film as a means for Africans to express themselves politically, culturally, and artistically. Vieyra was trained in filmmaking at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques in Paris, afrique Sur Seine explores the difficulties of being an African in France during the 1950s and is considered to be the first film directed by a black African. Before independence, only a few films were produced. Also doing film work in Africa during this time was the French ethnographic filmmaker, Jean Rouch, his work was controversial with French, the first African film to win international recognition was Sembène Ousmanes La Noire de. also known as Black Girl. It showed the despair of an African woman who has to work as a maid in France, the writer Sembène had turned to cinema to reach a wider audience. He is still considered to be the father of African cinema, sembènes native country Senegal continued to be the most important place of African film production for more than a decade. With the creation of the African film festival FESPACO in Burkina Faso in 1969, FESPACO now takes place every two years in alternation with the film festival Carthago in. The Pan African Federation of Filmmakers was formed in 1969 in order to focus attention on the promotion of African film industries in terms of production, distribution and exhibition. From its inception, FEPACI was seen as a partner organization to the Organisation of African Unity. FEPACI looks at the role of film in the politico-economic and cultural development of African states, med Hondos Soleil O, shot in 1969, was immediately recognized. No less politically engaged than Sembène, he chose a more controversial filmic language to show what it means to be a stranger in France with the skin colour. Souleymane Cissés Yeelen and Cheick Oumar Sissokos Guimba were well received in the west, some critics criticized the filmmakers for adapting to the exotic tastes of western audiences

15.
East Asian cinema
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East Asian cinema is cinema produced in East Asia or produced by people from this region. It is part of Asian cinema, which in turn is part of world cinema, World cinema is used in the English-speaking world to refer to all foreign language films. The most significant film industries categorizable as East Asian cinema are the industries of China, Hong Kong and Japan, Taiwan, other countries include Mongolia, Vietnam, Singapore, North Korea and Macau. The largest markets in East Asia are China, Japan and South Korea, the scope of East Asian cinema is huge and covers a wide array of different film styles and genres. Thus, several genres and styles developed. East Asian cinema has - to widely varying degrees nationally - had an audience since at least the 1950s. Kurosawas Seven Samurai became a success, Japanese cinema had burst into international consciousness. However, by the late 60s and early 70s, Japanese cinema had begun to become affected by the collapse of the studio system. Several major figures emerged in Hong Kong at this time - perhaps most famously, King Hu, shortly thereafter, the American-born Bruce Lee became a global icon. During the 1980s, Japanese cinema - aided by the rise of independent filmmaking, simultaneously, a new post-Mao Zedong generation of Chinese filmmakers began to gain global attention. Another group of filmmakers, centered around Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien launched what has become known as the Taiwanese New Wave, with the post-1980 rise in popularity of East Asian cinema in the West, Western audiences are again becoming familiar with many of the industrys filmmakers and stars. A number of key players, such as Chow Yun-fat and Zhang Ziyi have crossed over. The influence also goes the other way, some of the better known figures of East Asian cinema include, Cai Chusheng. Influential Chinese director of the 1930s and 1940s, best known for his film Spring River Flows East, which is frequently regarded as one of the masterpieces of Chinese cinema. Fifth-Generation Chinese film director known for such as Farewell My Concubine, The Emperor and the Assassin. Best known for In the Heat of the Sun and Devils on the Doorstep, one of the most prominent Sixth-Generation Chinese film directors. His most renowned works includes the highly acclaimed Platform, Unknown Pleasures, pioneering Chinese director in the 1940s. Best known for the film Spring in a Small Town, which is considered by many to be the best Chinese film ever made, Sixth-Generation film director of Purple Butterfly, Summer Palace, and Suzhou River

16.
South Asian cinema
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South Asian cinema refers to the cinema of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The terms Asian cinema, Eastern cinema and Oriental cinema in common usage often encompass South Asia as well as East Asia, see also Asian cinema, East Asian cinema and Southeast Asian cinema. The scope of South Asian cinema is huge and takes in an array of different film styles, linguistic regions. The industry often generally referred to as Dhallywood, has been a significant film industry since the early 1970s, the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s and the first half of the 1990s were the golden years for Bangladeshi films as the industry produced many successful films. The industry has begun receiving international acclaim and many Bangladeshi movies are getting international release. Dhallywood, is a portmanteau of the words Dhaka and Hollywood, India contains many state languages which have film industries centered on them. Regional industries have also tended to produce a percentage of serious art film. Bangladeshi cinema is filmed in Bengali and Sri Lankan cinema is filmed in Sinhala, last but not least is Indonesian cinema. In the beginning the Indonesian cinema grew after World War I, under Usmar Ismail, Indonesian cinema became the new entertainment in 1950 to 1980. Hundred of film stars were born, such as, Citra Dewi, yenny Rachman and Christine Hakim and Dian Sastro. Teguh Karya was one of the leading Film Director in Indonesia after the era of Usmar Ismail, now, by the popularity of television, film is replaced with electronic cinema which is popular as sinetron. This industry has made the Indian born producer, Raam Punjabi, Hindi Cinema, popularly known as Bollywood, is based in Mumbai. This film industry is the most prolific and popular in South Asia, Telugu film industry, sometimes known as Tollywood, which comes from the mixture of Hollywood and Telugu, based in Hyderabad, Telangana. It is one of the three branches of Indian Cinema. It was formerly located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, Tamil Cinema, the Tamil film industry based in the Kodambakkam area of Chennai. It is one of the three branches of Indian Cinema. Tamil films are produced in Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore. Chhollywood, the Chhattisgarhi language based film industry based in the state of Chhattisgarh, Dogri cinema, Dogri Language cinema of Jammu region

18.
Cinema of Europe
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Cinema of Europe refers to the film industries and films produced in the continent of Europe. Europeans were the pioneers of the picture industry, with several innovative engineers. Louis Le Prince became famous for his 1888 Roundhay Garden Scene, the Skladanowsky brothers from Berlin used their Bioscop to amaze the Wintergarten theatre audience with the first film show ever, from November 1 through 31,1895. The Lumière Brothers established the Cinematograph, which initiated the silent film era and it remained so until the art-hostile environment of World War II. The first large-scale film studio was established in Europe, with the Babelsberg Studio near Berlin in 1912. Post World War II movements include Free Cinema, French New Wave, Polish Film School, Czechoslovak New Wave, New German Cinema, British New Wave, Spaghetti Western and Novo Cinema. The turn of the 21st century has seen such as Dogme 95, New French Extremity. Antoine Lumière realized, on 28 December 1895, the first projection, with the Cinematograph, in 1897, Georges Méliès established the first cinema studio on a rooftop property in Montreuil, near Paris. The European Film Academy was founded in 1988 to celebrate European cinema through the European Film Awards annually, philippe Binant realised, on 2 February 2000, the first digital cinema projection in Europe, with the DLP CINEMA technology developed by Texas Instruments, in Paris. Thanks to the support of Eurimages and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the influence of Europa Cinemas extends to Eastern European countries, to the Balkans, to Russia and to Turkey

19.
Ghana
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Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a unitary presidential constitutional democracy, located along the Gulf of Guinea and Atlantic Ocean, in the subregion of West Africa. Spanning a land mass of 238,535 km², Ghana is bordered by the Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, Togo in the east, Ghana means Warrior King in the Soninke language. The territory of present-day Ghana has been inhabited for a millennium, numerous kingdoms and empires emerged over the centuries, of which the most powerful was the Kingdom of Ashanti. Beginning in the 15th century, numerous European powers contested the area for trading rights, following over a century of native resistance, Ghanas current borders were established by the 1900s as the British Gold Coast. On 6 March 1957, it became the first sub-Saharan African nation to become independent of European colonisation, a multicultural nation, Ghana has a population of approximately 27 million, spanning a variety of ethnic, linguistic and religious groups. Five percent of the population practices traditional faiths,71. 2% adhere to Christianity and 17. 6% are Muslim and its diverse geography and ecology ranges from coastal savannahs to tropical jungles. Ghana is a country led by a president who is both head of state and head of the government. Ghanas economy is one of the strongest and most diversified in Africa, following a century of relative stability. Ghanas growing economic prosperity and democratic political system have made it a power in West Africa. It is a member of the Non-Aligned Movement, the African Union, the Economic Community of West African States, Group of 24, Ghana was already recognized as one of the great kingdoms in Bilad el-Sudan by the ninth century. Ghana was inhabited in the Middle Ages and the Age of Discovery by a number of ancient predominantly Akan kingdoms in the Southern and this included the Ashanti Empire, the Akwamu, the Bonoman, the Denkyira, and the Mankessim Kingdom. Until the 11th century, the majority of modern Ghanas territorial area was unoccupied and uninhabited by humans. Although the area of present-day Ghana in West Africa has experienced many population movements, by the early 11th century, the Akans were firmly established in the Akan state called Bonoman, for which the Brong-Ahafo Region is named. From the 13th century, Akans emerged from what is believed to have been the Bonoman area, to create several Akan states of Ghana and these states included Bonoman, Ashanti, Denkyira, Mankessim Kingdom, and Akwamu Eastern region. By the 19th century, the territory of the part of Ghana was included in the Kingdom of Ashanti. The Kingdom of Ashanti government operated first as a loose network, prior to Akan contact with Europeans, the Akan Ashanti people created an advanced economy based on principally gold and gold bar commodities then traded with the states of Africa. The earliest known kingdoms to emerge in modern Ghana were the Mole-Dagbani states, the Mole-Dagombas came on horseback from present-day Burkina Faso under a single leader, Naa Gbewaa. The death of Naa Gbewaa caused civil war among his children, some of whom broke off and founded separate states including Dagbon, Mamprugu, Mossi, Nanumba, Akan trade with European states began after contact with Portuguese in the 15th century

20.
Singapore
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Singapore, officially the Republic of Singapore, sometimes referred to as the Lion City or the Little Red Dot, is a sovereign city-state in Southeast Asia. It lies one degree north of the equator, at the tip of peninsular Malaysia. Singapores territory consists of one island along with 62 other islets. Since independence, extensive land reclamation has increased its size by 23%. During the Second World War, Singapore was occupied by Japan, after early years of turbulence, and despite lacking natural resources and a hinterland, the nation developed rapidly as an Asian Tiger economy, based on external trade and its workforce. Singapore is a global commerce, finance and transport hub, the country has also been identified as a tax haven. Singapore ranks 5th internationally and first in Asia on the UN Human Development Index and it is ranked highly in education, healthcare, life expectancy, quality of life, personal safety, and housing, but does not fare well on the Democracy index. Although income inequality is high, 90% of homes are owner-occupied, 38% of Singapores 5.6 million residents are permanent residents and other foreign nationals. There are four languages on the island, Malay, Mandarin, Tamil. English is its language, most Singaporeans are bilingual. Singapore is a multiparty parliamentary republic, with a Westminster system of unicameral parliamentary government. The Peoples Action Party has won every election since self-government in 1959, however, it is unlikely that lions ever lived on the island, Sang Nila Utama, the Srivijayan prince said to have founded and named the island Singapura, perhaps saw a Malayan tiger. There are however other suggestions for the origin of the name, the central island has also been called Pulau Ujong as far back as the third century CE, literally island at the end in Malay. In 1299, according to the Malay Annals, the Kingdom of Singapura was founded on the island by Sang Nila Utama and these Indianized Kingdoms, a term coined by George Cœdès were characterized by surprising resilience, political integrity and administrative stability. In 1613, Portuguese raiders burned down the settlement, which by then was part of the Johor Sultanate. The wider maritime region and much trade was under Dutch control for the following period, in 1824 the entire island, as well as the Temenggong, became a British possession after a further treaty with the Sultan. In 1826, Singapore became part of the Straits Settlements, under the jurisdiction of British India, prior to Raffles arrival, there were only about a thousand people living on the island, mostly indigenous Malays along with a handful of Chinese. By 1860 the population had swelled to over 80,000, many of these early immigrants came to work on the pepper and gambier plantations

21.
Cinema of China
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The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan. Cinema was introduced in China in 1896 and the first Chinese film, The Battle of Dingjunshan, was made in 1905, the first sound film, Sing-Song Girl Red Peony, using the sound-on-disc technology, was made in 1931. Princess Iron Fan, the first Chinese animated feature film, was released at the end of this period and it influenced wartime Japanese animation and later Osamu Tezuka. After being completely engulfed by the occupation in 1941, and until the end of the war in 1945, after the communist revolution in 1949, previous and some foreign films were banned in 1951, and movie attendance increased sharply. During the Cultural Revolution, the industry was severely restricted. The movement partially ended after the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, China is the home of the largest film studio in the world, the Hengdian World Studios, and in 2010 it had the third largest film industry by number of feature films produced annually. In 2012 the country became the second-largest market in the world by box office receipts, in 2016, the gross box office in China was CN¥45.71 billion. The country has the largest number of screens in the world since 2016, China has also become a major hub of business for Hollywood studios. Motion pictures were introduced to China in 1896, the first recorded screening of a motion picture in China occurred in Shanghai on August 11,1896, as an act on a variety bill. The first Chinese film, a recording of the Peking opera, for the next decade the production companies were mainly foreign-owned, and the domestic film industry was centered on Shanghai, a thriving entrepot and the largest city in the Far East. In 1913, the first independent Chinese screenplay, The Difficult Couple, was filmed in Shanghai by Zheng Zhengqiu, Zhang Shichuan then set up the first Chinese-owned film production company in 1916. The first truly successful home-grown feature film was Yan Ruisheng released in 1921, during the 1920s film technicians from the United States trained Chinese technicians in Shanghai, and American influence continued to be felt there for the next two decades. It was during this period some of the more important production companies first came into being, notably Mingxing. Mingxing, founded by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan in 1922, initially focused on comic shorts, including the oldest surviving complete Chinese film and this soon shifted, however, to feature-length films and family dramas including Orphan Rescues Grandfather. In 1931, the first Chinese sound film Sing-Song Girl Red Peony was made, however, the sound was disc-recorded, and the first sound-on-film talkie made in China was either Spring on Stage by Tianyi, or Clear Sky After Storm by Great China Studio and Jinan Studio. In part due to the success of these kinds of films, the Leftist cinematic movement often revolved around the Western-influenced Shanghai, where filmmakers portrayed the struggling lower class of an overpopulated city. Three production companies dominated the market in the early to mid- 1930s, the newly formed Lianhua, both Mingxing and Lianhua leaned left, while Tianyi continued to make less socially conscious fare. The period also produced the first big Chinese movie stars, such as Hu Die, Ruan Lingyu, Li Lili, Chen Yen-yen, Zhou Xuan, Zhao Dan and Jin Yan

22.
Qufu
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Qufu is a city in southwestern Shandong Province, near the eastern coast of China. It is located about 130 kilometres south of the provincial capital Jinan and 45 kilometres northeast of the seat at Jining. Qufu has an population of about 60,000. Qufu is best known as the hometown of Confucius, who is believed to have been born at nearby Mount Ni. The city contains numerous historic palaces, temples and cemeteries, the three most famous cultural sites of the city, collectively known as San Kong, i. e. The Three Confucian, are the Temple of Confucius, the Cemetery of Confucius, together, these three sites have been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1994. The name Qufu literally means crooked hill, and refers to a hill that was part of the city during its time as capital of the state of Lu. During the Shang, the area around Qufu was home to the people of Yan, along with Pugu and Xu, Yan joined the Shang prince Wu Geng and the Three Guards in their failed rebellion against the Duke of Zhou c. 1142 BC. After the rebels defeat, the Duke launched punitive campaigns against the Dongyi, forcing their submission, the territory of the Yan became part of the state of Lu, who made Qufu their capital throughout the Spring and Autumn period. This city had walls considerably larger than the present Ming-era fortifications, including land to the east. During the Tang Dynasty and the days of the Song Dynasty the city was centered around the present-day Temple of Duke Zhou. A temple in honor of the Yellow Emperor was built there, after the conquest of the northern China by the Jurchens, the new Jin Dynasty renamed Xianyuan back to Qufu, but the city stayed at its Song location. It was not until the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming Dynasty that the city wall was built. The site of the city in 1012-1522 is now Jiuxian Village, from that time up until the Yuan dynasty, there were two Duke Yanshengs, once in the north in Qufu and the other in the south at Quzhou. An invitation to come back to Qufu was extended to the southern Duke Yansheng Kong Zhu by the Yuan dynasty Emperor Kublai Khan. The title was taken away from the branch after Kong Zhu rejected the invitation. The southern branch still remained in Quzhou where they lived to this day, confuciuss descendants in Quzhou alone number 30,000. The Hanlin Academy rank of Wujing boshi 五經博士 was awarded to the branch at Quzhou by a Ming Emperor while the northern branch at Qufu held the title Duke Yansheng

23.
Shandong
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Shandong is a coastal province of the Peoples Republic of China, and is part of the East China region. Shandongs Mount Tai is the most revered mountain of Taoism and one of the sites with the longest history of continuous religious worship. The Buddhist temples in the mountains to the south of the capital of Jinan were once among the foremost Buddhist sites in China. The city of Qufu is the birthplace of Confucius, and was established as the center of Confucianism. Individually, the two Chinese characters in the name Shandong mean mountain and east, Shandong could hence be translated literally as east of the mountains and refers to the provinces location to the east of the Taihang Mountains. A common nickname for Shandong is Qílǔ, after the States of Qi and Lu that existed in the area during the Spring and Autumn period. Whereas the State of Qi was a power of its era. Lu, however, became renowned for being the home of Confucius, the cultural dominance of the State of Lu heritage is reflected in the official abbreviation for Shandong which is 鲁. English speakers in the 19th century called the province Shan-tung, the province is on the eastern edge of the North China Plain and in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and extends out to sea as the Shandong Peninsula. The earliest dynasties exerted varying degrees of control over western Shandong, over subsequent centuries, the Dongyi were eventually sinicized. During the Spring and Autumn period and the Warring States period, at this time, Shandong was home to two major states, the state of Qi at Linzi and the state of Lu at Qufu. Lu is noted for being the home of Confucius, the state was, however, comparatively small, and eventually succumbed to the larger state of Chu from the south. The state of Qi was, on the hand, was a major power throughout the period. Cities it ruled included Linzi, Jimo and Ju, the Qin dynasty conquered Qi and founded the first centralized Chinese state in 221 BCE. The Han dynasty that followed created a number of commanderies supervised by two regions in what is now modern Shandong, Qingzhou in the north and Yanzhou in the south, during the division of the Three Kingdoms, Shandong belonged to the Cao Wei, which ruled over northern China. After the Three Kingdoms period, a period of unity under the Western Jin dynasty gave way to invasions by nomadic peoples from the north. Northern China, including Shandong, was overrun, Shandong stayed with the Northern Dynasties for the rest of this period. The Sui dynasty reestablished unity in 589, and the Tang dynasty presided over the golden age of China

24.
Chinese language
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Chinese is a group of related, but in many cases mutually unintelligible, language varieties, forming a branch of the Sino-Tibetan language family. Chinese is spoken by the Han majority and many ethnic groups in China. Nearly 1.2 billion people speak some form of Chinese as their first language, the varieties of Chinese are usually described by native speakers as dialects of a single Chinese language, but linguists note that they are as diverse as a language family. The internal diversity of Chinese has been likened to that of the Romance languages, There are between 7 and 13 main regional groups of Chinese, of which the most spoken by far is Mandarin, followed by Wu, Min, and Yue. Most of these groups are mutually unintelligible, although some, like Xiang and certain Southwest Mandarin dialects, may share common terms, all varieties of Chinese are tonal and analytic. Standard Chinese is a form of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect of Mandarin. It is the language of China and Taiwan, as well as one of four official languages of Singapore. It is one of the six languages of the United Nations. The written form of the language, based on the logograms known as Chinese characters, is shared by literate speakers of otherwise unintelligible dialects. Of the other varieties of Chinese, Cantonese is the spoken language and official in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also influential in Guangdong province and much of Guangxi, dialects of Southern Min, part of the Min group, are widely spoken in southern Fujian, with notable variants also spoken in neighboring Taiwan and in Southeast Asia. Hakka also has a diaspora in Taiwan and southeast Asia. Shanghainese and other Wu varieties are prominent in the lower Yangtze region of eastern China, Chinese can be traced back to a hypothetical Sino-Tibetan proto-language. The first written records appeared over 3,000 years ago during the Shang dynasty, as the language evolved over this period, the various local varieties became mutually unintelligible. In reaction, central governments have sought to promulgate a unified standard. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, in addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to reach, and are often also sensitive border zones. Without a secure reconstruction of proto-Sino-Tibetan, the structure of the family remains unclear. A top-level branching into Chinese and Tibeto-Burman languages is often assumed, the earliest examples of Chinese are divinatory inscriptions on oracle bones from around 1250 BCE in the late Shang dynasty

25.
Cinema of Hong Kong
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The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China, and the cinema of Taiwan. For decades, Hong Kong was the third largest motion picture industry in the world, in the West, Hong Kongs vigorous pop cinema has long had a strong cult following, which is now arguably a part of the cultural mainstream, widely available and imitated. Economically, the industry together with the value added of cultural. Unlike many film industries, Hong Kong has enjoyed little or no government support. It is a commercial cinema, highly corporate, concentrating on crowd-pleasing genres like comedy and action. Hong Kong film derives a number of elements from Hollywood, such as certain genre parameters, but the borrowings are filtered through elements from traditional Chinese drama and art, particularly a penchant for stylisation and a disregard for Western standards of realism. This, combined with a fast and loose approach to the process, contributes to the energy. In 2010, the box office gross in Hong Kong was HK$1.339 billion, there were 56 Hong Kong films and 220 foreign films released in 2011. According to McDonald, a system emerged in Hollywood as talent scouts, coaches. In the vertically integrated Hollywood film industry of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, the studios made the stars and, due to notoriously restrictive terms imposed by exclusive services contracts, the studios also owned the stars. As is common in cinema, the industrys heart is a highly developed star system. In earlier days, beloved performers from the Chinese opera stage often brought their audiences with them to the screen, possibly even more important is the overlap with the Cantonese pop music industry. In the current commercially troubled climate, the casting of young Cantopop idols to attract the all-important youth audience is endemic, in the small and tightly knit industry, actors are kept very busy. During previous boom periods, the number of made by a successful figure in a single year could routinely reach double digits. Films are typically low-budget when compared with American films, a major release with a big star, aimed at hit status, will typically cost around US$5 million. A low-budget feature can go well below US$1 million, occasional blockbuster projects by the very biggest stars or international co-productions aimed at the global market, can go as high as US$20 million or more, but these are rare exceptions. Hong Kong productions can nevertheless achieve a level of gloss and lavishness greater than these numbers might suggest, given such as lower wages. Films in the Cantonese language have made in Hong Kong since the beginning

26.
Cinema of Taiwan
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The cinema of Taiwan, officially by its constitutional name - the Republic of China, is deeply rooted in the islands unique history. Since its introduction to Taiwan in 1901 under Japanese rule, cinema has developed in Taiwan under ROC rule through several distinct stages and it has also developed outside of the Hong Kong mainstream and the censorship of the Peoples Republic of China in the mainland. In recent years, Taiwans film industry has supported by a group of internationally respected filmmakers. Hou Hsiao-hsien and Edward Yang have built solid positions as Taiwanese directors, in addition, the Malaysian-Chinese Tsai Ming-liang has gained the worlds attention as a Taiwanese director. Though a number of Taiwanese directors have chosen to explore themes of nostalgia and historical memory, Rebels of the Neon God observed the empty life of young people, while Vive LAmour touched on lonely urban men and women licking each others wounds. Tsais film gives a feeling of a fable, but it is at times difficult to understand. In the 1990s, other Taiwanese directors such as Chen Kuo-fu, Tsui Siu Ming, since the late Japanese colonial period to martial law in Taiwan, the development of Taiwanese film has been dominated by the official camp studio development. In fact, the production of film at that stage is mainly news footage taken by the government-run studio, until today, the Taiwan government-funded Film Fund is still an important way to explore Taiwans film talent, this film grant brings a lot of criticism. However, from the creative, active point of view of Taiwans film industry point of view, in fact, many people believe that the grant is in fact a counseling structure of the Taiwanese culture. The Government Information Office is in charge of the film grant, grants are given to film uses film as a unit, and is divided into two groups of five million and 800 million. Amounts of money spent should be at least $120 million in 15 films, on the application, there are certain specifications. For example, the purpose of the group of five million grant is to encourage new directors directing a film for the first time. In addition to the directors and their film, Taiwanese documentaries are flourishing as well. The development of Taiwanese documentaries is primarily the result of the lifting of martial law in 1987, another success factor comes from the support and promotion by the Taiwan Council for Cultural Affairs. In fact, other government units and private organizations are actively supporting. They have established a variety of festivals and awards to encourage the production of excellent documentaries. Recently, Taiwan has produced a group of documentary filmmakers. They are from all sectors of the Taiwanese society, the themes of their works are varied. Themes arise from the subject himself or his family, the documentary spindle also explores the social issues in order to explore the personal lives and problems

27.
The Battle of Dingjunshan (film)
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The Battle of Dingjunshan is a 1905 Chinese film directed by Ren Qingtai aka Ren Jingfeng. The film was made by Beijings Fengtai Photography and it was based on an episode in Luo Guanzhongs historical novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms and starred Tan Xinpei. It is sometimes translated as Conquering the Jun Mountain, the film consisted of a recording of a Beijing opera performance of the Battle of Mount Dingjun and constitutes the first Chinese film ever made. The only print was destroyed in a fire in the late 1940s

28.
Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty

29.
Hengdian World Studios
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Hengdian World Studios is a film studio located in Hengdian, a Chinese town in the city of Dongyang, Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. It is the largest film studio in the world, the movie studio is operated by the privately owned Hengdian Group founded by Xu Wenrong. Sometimes called Chinawood, Xu turned acres of farmland in central Zhejiang into one of the largest movie studios in Asia, construction began in the mid-1990s and has been ongoing ever since with the possible recent addition of the replica of the Old Summer Palace. A film about working at the studio, I Am Somebody, was released in China in 2015. The studio consists of 13 shooting bases with an area of up to 330 ha. In addition to its scale, the studio also has several records which includes. Most number of Films and Teleplay Shoots as of 2005, one of the studios largest buildings is the Imperial Palace Building built in the Early Chinese Dynasty style in the Qin and Han periods. That area is frequently used to shoot movies based on these eras. The director Zhang Yimou used this building as the backdrop for the Emperor Qins palace for his 2002 movie Hero, a Hong Kong TVB drama serial titled A Step into the Past which tells the story of the First Qin Emperor also used the same building as the main backdrop. The studio was used to film The Forbidden Kingdom, the first on-screen collaboration between actors Jackie Chan and Jet Li. In addition, it was used for the filming of the popular Korean drama serial Empress Ki. The large number of movies being filmed at Hengdian has supported employment in surrounding villages by employing local villagers as extras in large movie sets. Today, Hengdian World Studios consists of a park and has attractions such as Guangzhou and Hong Kong Street areas, Emperor Qin Palace, Dazhi Temple. Hengdian World Studios official website Hengdian World Studios official website Hengdian Group - Parent Company

30.
Far East
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The Far East is an alternate geographical term in English, that usually refers to East Asia, the Russian Far East, and Southeast Asia. South Asia is sometimes also included for economic and cultural reasons, since the 1960s, East Asia has become the most common term for the region in international mass media outlets. Far East is often deprecated as archaic and Eurocentric, along with the terms Near East and Middle East. The term Far East came into use in European geopolitical discourse in the 12th century, for the same reason, Chinese people in the 19th and early 20th centuries called Western countries Tàixī —i. e. anything further west than the Arab world. Prior to the era, Far East referred to anything further east than the Middle East. In the 16th century, King John III of Portugal called India a rich, the term was popularized during the period of the British Empire as a blanket term for lands to the east of British India. Many European languages have terms, such as the French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Polish, Norwegian. Significantly, the term evokes cultural as well as separation, the Far East is not just geographically distant. It never refers, for instance, to the culturally Western nations of Australia and New Zealand and this combination of cultural and geographic subjectivity was well illustrated in 1939 by Robert Menzies, a Prime Minister of Australia. Reflecting on his countrys geopolitical concerns with the onset of war, Menzies commented that, what Great Britain calls the Far East is to us the Near North. Far East in its sense is comparable to terms such as the Orient, which means East. Southeast Asia, the Russian Far East, and occasionally the Indian Subcontinent might be included in the Far East to some extent, for the people who live in that part of the world, however, it is neither East nor West and certainly not Far. A more generally acceptable term for the area is East Asia, furthermore, the United Kingdom and United States have historically used Far East for several military units and commands in the region, British Far East Command RAF Far East Air Force U. S. Far East Air Force The U. S. Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations, Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western

31.
Screenplay
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A screenplay or script is a written work by screenwriters for a film, video game, or television program. These screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing, in them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated. A screenplay written for television is also known as a teleplay, the format is structured in a way that one page usually equates to one minute of screen time. In a shooting script, each scene is numbered, and technical direction may be given, in a spec or a draft in various stages of development, the scenes are not numbered, and technical direction is at a minimum. The standard font for a screenplay is 12 point,10 pitch Courier Typeface, the major components are action and dialogue. The action is written in the present tense, the dialogue are the lines the characters speak. Unique to the screenplay is the use of slug lines, a slug line, also called a master scene heading, occurs at the start of every scene, and is usually made up of three parts. Part one states whether the scene is set inside outside, or both, Part two states location of the scene. Part three, separated from Part two by a hyphen, refers to the time of the scene, each slug line begins a new scene. In a shooting script, the lines are numbered consecutively. These scene numbers serve as mile-post markers in a script and this allows any part of the script to be referred to by scene number. In the United States letter size paper and Courier 12 point are mandatory, the tab settings of the scene elements, which constitute the screenplays layout. The dialogue must be centered and the names must be capitalized, a script usually begins with FADE IN, followed by the first scene description. It might get more specific, e. g. FADE IN ON AN ECU of Ricky as he explains the divorce to Bob, a script will usually end with FADE TO BLACK, though there are variables, like CUT TO BLACK for abrupt endings. The style consists of a grammar that is specific to screenplays and this grammar also consists of two aspects, A prose that is manifestation-oriented, i. e. focuses largely on what is audible and what is visible on screen. This prose may only supply interpretations and explanation if clarity would otherwise be adversely affected, American screenplays are printed single-sided on three-hole-punched paper using the standard American letter size. They are then together with two brass brads in the top and bottom hole. The middle hole is left empty as it would make it harder to quickly read the script

32.
Zheng Zhengqiu
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Zheng Zhengqiu was a Chinese filmmaker often considered a founding father of Chinese cinema. The two men would come again in 1922 with the founding of the seminal Mingxing Film Company. While with Mingxing, Zheng served not only as screenwriter and director, like many of his colleagues during the period, Zheng was devoted to leftist causes and social justice, themes that were evident in many of his works. After his partner, Zhang Shichuan, rescued Xuan Jinglin from a brothel and he based it on the name she had adopted in the brothel and a transliteration of Lillian Gish into Chinese said in a Shanghai accent. Zheng Zhengqiu at the Internet Movie Database Zheng Zhengqiu at the Chinese Movie Database

33.
Zhang Shichuan
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Zhang Shichuan was a Chinese entrepreneur, film director, and film producer, who is considered a founding father of Chinese cinema. He never recovered from the humiliation, and died in 1953 or 1954, Zhang Shichuan was born Zhang Weitong in Beilun, Ningbo, Zhejiang province. Shichuan was his name, originally written with the different characters 蚀川. His father Zhang Heju was a merchant dealing with silkworms. His father died when Zhang was 16 years old, and he had to school and move to Shanghai to live with his maternal uncle Jing Runsan. In Shanghai, he worked at the American-owned Huayang Company by day, in 1913, Yashell and Suffert, two Americans in Shanghai who had acquired the Asia Film Company, asked Zhang to be their consultant. Despite his lack of experience in filmmaking, Zhang took over the companys work responsibilities and he sought help from Zheng Zhengqiu, a well-known playwright, and the two cofounded the Xinmin Film Company to make film for the Asia Company. Soon they made Chinas first feature film, The Difficult Couple, however, Xinmin and Asia went out of business when their supply of German film stock was cut off after the outbreak of World War I. When his uncle died, Zhang was asked by his aunt to manage the familys New World amusement park, in 1916, Zhang formed Huanxian Film Company, when American film stock became available in Shanghai, and made the film Victims of Opium, adapted from a stage play. But the company folded, and he returned to manage the amusement park. In 1922, Zhang and his old partner Zheng Zhengqiu, together with Zhou Jianyun, Zheng Zhegu, when Zhang Shichuans The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple became a phenomenal hit, he produced as many as 17 sequels in the next three years. The film marked the beginning of the popular martial arts film genre. In 1928, Mingxing became a limited shareholding company, and registered with the government to sell stocks to the public, for its entire existence of 17 years, Zhang served as the companys general manager and director. Under his leadership, it became Chinas largest film production company, in cooperation with Hong Shen, Zhang directed Sing-Song Girl Red Peony in 1931, the first Chinese sound film. In the early 1930s, Japans invasion of Manchuria and attack of Shanghai produced a sense of crisis in China. Mingxing made a leftist turn under Zhangs management and he hired a number of leftist writers, who wrote scripts for such films as The Tenderness Market and Lucky Money. In August 1937, the Battle of Shanghai erupted, and the Imperial Japanese Army occupied Shanghai after months of fighting, the Mingxing Studio was destroyed by Japanese bombing in the battle. Zhang salvaged some equipment and joined the Guohua Film Company, but was never able to revive Mingxing, Zhang worked for the Japanese-controlled company as a branch manager and director

34.
Platform (2000 film)
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Platform is a 2000 Chinese film written and directed by Jia Zhangke. The film is set in and around the city of Fenyang, Shanxi province, China. It follows a group of twenty-something performers as they face personal and societal changes, the dialogue is a mixture of local speech, mainly Jin Chinese and Mandarin. The film has been called an epic of grassroots and it is named after a popular song about waiting at a railway platform. Platform has garnered acclaim from critics in the years since its release. The film starts in 1979 in the wake of the Cultural Revolution, a theatre troupe of young adults in Fenyang performs state-approved material. The troupe includes Cui Minliang and his friends, Yin Ruijuan, Zhang Jun, Cui asks Yin if she is his girlfriend, but she replies that she is not. The troupe leaves their hometown and travels throughout the country for years during the 1980s. Yin stays behind in Fenyang and becomes a tax collector, the authorities find out about the illegal sexual relationship between Zhang and Zhong, and Zhong then leaves the group, never to return. As China undergoes massive social changes, the troupe alters their performances, Cui, jaded by his years on the road, reunites with Yin. Another film by Jia Zhangke, Still Life, was voted the third best film, platform placed 32 on Slant Magazines list of the 100 best films of the 2000s and was named as one of Sight & Sounds films of the 2000s. The film has a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes

35.
Takeshi Kitano
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Takeshi Kitano is a Japanese comedian, television personality, director, actor, author, and screenwriter. While he is primarily as a comedian and TV host in his native Japan. With the exception of his works as a director, he is known almost exclusively by the stage name Beat Takeshi. Kitano rose to prominence in the 1970s as one half of the comedy duo Two Beat, before going solo, after several small acting roles, he made his directorial debut with 1989s Violent Cop and garnered international acclaim for Sonatine. But he was not accepted as a director in Japan until Hana-bi won the Golden Lion in 1997, in December 2016, it was announced that Kitanos first crime trilogy for the Outrage series would be completed in 2017 with Outrage, Final Chapter in post-production as of April 2017. Many of Kitanos films are dramas about yakuza gangsters or the police, many of his films express a bleak or nihilistic philosophy, but they are also filled with humor and affection for their characters. Takeshi Kitano was born in Adachi, Tokyo with two brothers and an older sister. His father worked as a painter, with Kitano revealing that he was also possibly a yakuza, while his mother was a strict disciplinarian. In his working-class neighborhood, the children looked up to players and yakuza. Kitano entered Meiji University and studied engineering, before dropping out at age 19 and he went to the Asakusa district in 1972 to become a comedian. While working as an operator at the Asakusa France-za striptease, he became an apprentice of its comedian Senzaburo Fukami. In the 1970s, he formed a duo with his friend Nirō Kaneko. They took on the stage names Beat Takeshi and Beat Kiyoshi and this sort of duo comedy, known as manzai in Japan, usually features a great deal of high-speed back-and-forth banter between the two performers. Kiyoshi played the man against Takeshis funny man. In 1976, they performed on television for the first time and became a success, the reason for their popularity had much to do with Kitanos material, which was much more risqué than traditional manzai. The targets of his jokes were often the socially vulnerable, including the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, children, women, the ugly, complaints to the broadcaster led to censorship of some of Kitanos jokes and the editing of offensive dialogue. Kitano confirmed in a interview that he was forbidden to access the NHK studios for five years for having exposed his body during a show when it was totally forbidden. Although Two Beat was one of the most successful acts of its kind during the late 1970s and early 1980s, Kitano decided to go solo, together with Sanma Akashiya and Tamori, Kitano is said to be one of the Big Three television comedians of Japan

36.
Golden Lion
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The Golden Lion is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the committee and is now regarded as one of the film industrys most distinguished prizes. In 1970, a second Golden Lion was introduced, this is an award for people who have made an important contribution to cinema. The prize was introduced in 1949 as the Golden Lion of Saint Mark, previously, the equivalent prize was the Gran Premio Internazionale di Venezia, awarded in 1947 and 1948. Before that, from 1934 until 1942, the highest awards were the Coppa Mussolini for Best Italian Film, no Golden Lions were awarded between 1969 and 1979. Sixty-eight produced a dramatic fracture with the past,14 French films have been awarded the Golden Lion, more than that of any other nation. However, there is considerable diversity in the winners. Five American filmmakers have won the Golden Lion, with awards for John Cassavetes and Robert Altman, as well as Ang Lee, Darren Aronofsky and Sofia Coppola. The Golden Lion, by contrast, has awarded to ten Asians during the same time period. Ang Lee won the Golden Lion twice within three years during the 2000s, once for an American film and once for a Chinese-language film, zhang Yimou has also won twice. Other Asians to win the Golden Lion since 1980 include Jia Zhangke, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Tsai Ming-liang, Trần Anh Hùng, Takeshi Kitano, Kim Ki-duk, Jafar Panahi, Mira Nair, and Lav Diaz. Russian filmmakers have won the Golden Lion several times, including since the end of the USSR. Still, to date 33 of the 54 winners were European men, since 1949 only four women have ever won the Golden Lion for directing, Mira Nair, Sofia Coppola, German Margarethe von Trotta and Belgiums Agnès Varda. In comparison to the other major Western European festivals, the Berlinales Golden Bear has also awarded to four women. In the history of Cannes, only one woman filmmaker has been awarded the Palme dOr

37.
Three Gorges
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The Three Gorges are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in the Peoples Republic of China. The Three Gorges have long been renowned for their scenery. The Yangtze River —Three Gorges region has a length of approximately 200 kilometres. The Three Gorges occupy approximately 120 kilometres within this region, although it is primarily famous for its scenery, the Three Gorges region is also a historically and culturally important location in China. Many settlements and archeological sites are under submersion from the rising Three Gorges Dam, the Three Gorges Dam was constructed at a place called Sāndòupíng in the middle of the Xiling Gorge. The reservoir dam was completed in the summer of 2006, the project was completed by the end of 2008, although a ship lift is still in course of construction, and expected to be completed in 2015. The dam and Three Gorges Reservoir has had an impact upon the regions ecology and people, involving the mass relocation of towns. The higher water level has changed the scenery of the Three Gorges, so that the river is wider, however, the mountains still tower above the river, and the gorges continue to offer spectacular views of the surrounding cliffs. The riverboat companies that operate in the Three Gorges are experiencing a boom in demand for river cruises. The increased width and depth of the river permits larger ships through the gorges, baiheliang Underwater Museum Chinese yuan note — the westernmost gorge image is on the ten yuan note. Three Gorges Locks Three Gorges Museum

14th century medieval ewer looted from the Ashanti Empire in 1896 by British forces. The ewer was originally made for the court of Richard II. Currently housed at the British Museum. Historians are unsure how it came to reside with the Ashanti Empire in good condition after 500 years.